When writing learning outcomes, one of the questions we ask is "what sorts of behaviours or performances would I associate with someone who has reached this state?" We might also ask a related question: "what would a high quality performance of this kind look like?" Assessment criteria help us to communicate how successful the student has been in achieving the outcomes.
Assessment criteria are often expressed as rubrics. There are two kinds of rubrics:
analytic holistic
You can read more about their relative strengths and weaknesses here, here and here (also links to examples). Another example can be found here. A sample rubric is critiqued here.
Southern Cross University has produced a comprehensive guide to Using Rubrics in Student Assessment.
How do we design rubrics?
By Craig A. Mertler (click on link to see rubric templates)
Education Services Australia has produced a useful guide to writing rubric descriptors.
Webinars: Developing rubrics for language assessment, Designing writing assessments and rubrics
'Reliable Rubrics' by Assessment Research Centre